Since the 2024 NFL schedule was released in May, the Pittsburgh Steelers knew they had a tough December ahead of them.
Eleven days. Three games. Two of them on the road. All against teams fighting for playoff spots.
This is why coach Mike Tomlin runs one of the most intense training camps in the league, to prepare his team for challenges like the one they are facing now.
“That’s why we tackle in Latrobe every day that we have pads on,” said Tomlin, the longest-tenured coach in the NFL.
But when the first challenge arrived on Sunday in Philadelphia, it didn’t seem like all that training made a difference.
The Eagles controlled the game for more than three hours, winning 27-13. They dominated the clock, holding the ball for 40 minutes, including a 21-play drive in the fourth quarter that drained the clock and moved the ball from one end of the field to the other. The Steelers went home with a lot to fix and very little time to do so.
The Steelers (10-4) now have just five days to prepare for a big game against rival Baltimore. A win there would secure the division title, something that seemed unlikely earlier in the season. But despite Pittsburgh’s improvement over the past few months, the Eagles showed how to defeat the Steelers by using their own style of play.
Philadelphia controlled the line of scrimmage the entire game, but the Steelers also made mistakes they hadn’t made all season.
The Steelers failed to take advantage of two early turnovers by Philadelphia. They punted after the first turnover and only got a field goal after the second. A personal foul penalty on wide receiver Calvin Austin III for an altercation with Eagles cornerback Darius Slay, who wasn’t penalized despite appearing to throw a punch, hurt the Steelers.
The defense struggled in the final three quarters as the Eagles moved the ball at will, with missed tackles and assignments making things worse.
Tomlin admitted that the coaching staff didn’t do much better. Any issues between Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts and wide receiver A.J. Brown disappeared as Brown and Devonta Smith made big plays, leaving the Steelers defense scrambling.
In a season where Tomlin has been aggressive, he seemed hesitant during key moments. Late in the first half, after T.J. Watt sacked Hurts to force a punt, Tomlin let more than 20 seconds tick off the clock without trying to make a play.
Later, with just over 10 minutes left in the game and the Steelers down by two touchdowns, Tomlin chose to punt on fourth-and-7 from the Pittsburgh 46 instead of going for it.
“I’m comfortable with the process that we went through at the time in terms of how we played that situation,” Tomlin said.
It didn’t work out. The Steelers never got the ball back, and they remained winless in Philadelphia since 1965. Tomlin downplayed the loss, saying it was just a defeat and urging against overreacting. However, his team missed an opportunity to show it could compete with the best in the league.
Perhaps worse, few players—except for Watt—appeared truly ready for the challenge. Facing their biggest rival on short rest is a tough task.
If the Steelers want to be a serious contender in the AFC by mid-January, they must rise to the occasion.
